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NASCAR: No rules against drivers, crew members or officials betting on races

March 10, 2012

Sprint Cup Series driver Greg Biffle said that he bet on himself to win a Camping World Truck Series race earlier in his career. He lost the race and the bet. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Perhaps surprisingly--to some people, in any case--NASCAR has no rule against its owners, drivers or crewmen walking into a casino and betting on this afternoon's 267-lap, 400.5-mile Sprint Cup Series race in Las Vegas.

Unlike mainstream stick-and-ball sports, people involved in NASCAR can bet as much as they want on anything they want.

NASCAR president Mike Helton said the difference in betting on stock-car racing and other team sports is that racing is 1-vs.-43 instead of 1-vs.-1. “We've looked at it and monitored it, and will continue to, and we've never seen a problem,” Helton said on Sunday morning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “If we ever see a trend or something that makes us uncomfortable, we'll certainly react to it.

“But in this community, with all the hardware and the mechanics and the parts and pieces that can work and not work, we have fairly good confidence that it would be hard for anyone to posture it to create[(a rigged] outcome. And a lot of our rules are designed to protect that.”

Hall of Fame crew chief Dale Inman said winning is too important for drivers to bet on themselves to lose. “I can't think of a situation when anyone would ever do that,” said Inman, a fixture at Richard Petty Motorsports. “You might bet one brand to beat another, but you'd never bet on yourself to lose. Besides, there are too many variables. Too much can happen that determines who beats who.”

Team co-owner Len Wood of Wood Brothers Racing has bet small amounts in Las Vegas, but never on his car. “No, no, no and no,” he said when asked whether he could imagine a driver or crewman throwing a race to win a bet. “Winning these things is too hard, and it's too important to too many people for anyone to give one away. You can bet on brands to win or drivers to finish ahead of other drivers, but nobody in this garage is going to bet on his driver losing, then do something to make that happen. This isn't like those stick-and-ball sports where one person can impact who wins and who loses.”

As for drivers, some do, but most don't when it comes to betting on races.

"I think they're terrible odds for everyone," Brad Keselowski said. "I don't know how they figure that out. NASCAR is not a good sport to gamble on. In fact, it's pretty terrible."

Greg Biffle was one of the drivers who did gamble on himself early in his career, but a bad beat quickly put an end to it.

"When we came here in the Truck Series, my truck was super, super fast, so I bet on myself to win and lost on the last lap. So ever since then I decided not to bet anymore," he said.

Jimmie Johnson was listed as the favorite at 4-1 by vegasinsider.com.betting on NASCAR.